A Saskatchewan rural municipality will give a $41,000 fire bill a second look, says the RM reeve.
Local residents affected by a fire on May 20 met in January to discuss fire bills as high as $11,000 that the RM of Corman Park issued to nine acreage owners.
Reeve Ed Hobday said the RM will meet with residents again after re-examining reports from the seven fire departments that responded to the fire. The report indicates the time fire fighters spent on each property.
The council issued the fire bills at the end of the year, and told residents the payment is due by the end of 2003. After that, interest will accrue and total charges will be added to their tax bills.
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Wendy Britten lost three snowmobiles, a trailer and 78 acres of bush in the fire west of Saskatoon.
She said the bush was a selling point when buying the property and will take years to regrow.
“I’ll enjoy them when I’m 25 years older than now,” she said.
Britten hopes to have her $9,744 fire bill reduced following the review. Her insurer has indicated she is only covered for $1,900.
To pay the bills, she said lawsuits are planned against the owner on whose property the fire started in a burning barrel.
Rick McCullough, the provincial fire commissioner, called the fire accidental.
He said it was caused by the unmonitored burning of trash in a barrel during winds that ranged from 40 to 60 km-h. No screen was placed on the barrel during burning.
Estimated damage to mainly bush land is pegged at $100,000, McCullough said.
He noted similarities with the Turtle Lake forest fires in northeastern Saskatchewan that swept from a quarter section to burn 53 cottages last spring.
“These grass fires take off and just spread like wildfire,” he said.
Hobday said voluntary fire bans were in place in the RM last May due to dry conditions caused by drought.
However, the bans have no legal status, something the RM hopes to change with its parent body, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
“We want to ask for some teeth in that from the provincial government,” Hobday said.
